[Rclark]

The new Kinect is very advanced, and mandatory to be connected and powered up at all times.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=620476

Does this affect your decision to purchase an Xbox One?

I'm getting a PS4, which has no such device included, and is more powerful, a gaming console only. Sony put their emphasis on ease of development for games, and raw hardware power, MS went less hardware power, emphasis on mandatory Kinect.


www.xboxonevspsfour.com

^ the above link is a very sophisticated world wide poll. Click the upper right for a country by country, state by state breakdown. Not looking good for the new MS box.

[TF1216]

Microsoft decided to change the "always connected" policy:
http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/update

However, some folks appear to be upset about that now:
http://www.cnet.com.au/fans-create-petition-to-bring-back-xbox-one-policies-339344833.htm

[Rclark]

But the device is always on, no matter what, and when you're online with it, which will be often, it's connected. You can't remove it. And those few thousand who want the policies that caused such a dramatic uproar against the console are shills, probably, employees.

PS4 is $100 cheaper, more powerful, and isn't a PR cluster****.

[Rclark]

On a more humorous note, one of the main features of the Xbox One was that you would plug your cable boxDVR into it, and from there to your TV, and the console would control your tv with voice commands (annoying feature, imo), etc, while the camera and stereo mics take a high res, and infared image of your living room.

Comcast has said "nu-uh"

Say hello to the Comcast X1. That's right, the X1. All the features, no camera, and no redundant console needed. Xbox One's tv "features" just became the new HD-DVD player.

http://www.comcast.com/x1?CMP=KNC-IQ_ID_59904970-VQ2-g-VQ3--VQ6-36489122256-VQ16-c&iq_id=59904970&NUM=2

[jarcher]

Hey Rclark : haven't you kicked the xbox one in the nuts enough ! 

The second part of the MS annoucement is even more important to me :

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

Brings me a lot closer to finding the XBOX one acceptable.  I'd still give the edge to the PS4 for hardware reasons + potential 4K movie streaming + lower price. 

Comcast finally gets a new DVR : about friggin time!  The previous one was such an incredible dinosaur / POS.  Still would get a TIVO instead, particular w/ the high comcast DVR rental fee ($18?), even paying the TIVO subscription you're still saving + getting better hardware.

[Rclark]

Kicking it in the nuts, collectively, is what's brought about the reversal in policy we have so far. I'll keep kicking it in the nuts until they remove the Kinect, A One without it, being as it's less powerful hardware than the PS4, should go for $349, $329, thereabouts. I'd be a buyer for that model.

[HT cOz]

Is it not presumptuous to say that you don't want something without seeing it or ever using it. You never know the new Kinect might be the coolest deleopmentt in gamming ever.  The smart money is on waiting and seeing what each console has to offer before buying.

[Rclark]

Waving your hands around to order pizza hut while the system targets you for ads. That's your coolest thing ever. Kinect hasn't had a good game yet, and if it was the creepiest, I mean coolest thing ever as you say, they would have shown something for it. No, they haven't. They even took a game that was developed for it, RYSE, and made it into a standard controller game.

No, coolest thing ever? The Oculus Rift is the coolest thing ever.

There isn't any mystery about either machine, what they both do and are offering are pretty well known at this point. Hence many people are switching from 360 to ps4. That system has received enormous praise for good reason. Every poll I've seen is ridiculously lopsided to ps4, and they are crushing it in preorders.

[jarcher]

Never really cared about Kinect - or even voice controls - so if I could get it for less without it, that would be a bonus for me.  But then again I'm of the old-school couch potato button mashing school of gaming, which seems to be out of fashion these days....

[Rclark]

You're not out of fashion, you are a core gamer type who just wants a powerful box and a handheld controller. On your couch the way god intended. Most people want this, as evidenced by every poll taken so far since the reveals, e3, and today are all pretty consistently 80%+ for ps4.

The Kinect 2.0 is a marketing bot, and a pretty gimmicky "controller", not many people want to wave their arms around for hours to play a game.

it's basically designed to read your expressions and listen to your responses to advertising, cloaked as a "gaming device".

The last one sold because of a dancing game, and really that's the only use as a gaming input, the kinds of games where you stand in front of your tv and flap around like an idiot. Is it a useful way to play forza or halo? Pretty easy to see why not.

[Bob in St. Louis]

I've got three PS3 units in my house, and may soon have a fourth.
That being said, personally, I like the idea of having a camera in every room of the house recording every move I make, 24/7.
Did anybody see the movie "Truman"? That's just neat.

I'm sure nothing bad would come if it, and warmly welcome whatever may come of my life being filmed, digitized, recorded and saved for whatever use by whomever happens to be on the other end of that Ethernet cable. I'll blindly accept them into my home and life with open arms without reservation.

In fact, I think I'll get my 80 year old Mother an Xbox, because I'm sure if she happens to fall down and hurt herself all she would have to do is scream out, "I've fallen and I can't get up", and the Paramedics would arrive in just a few minutes.

Oh wait....what was the question? 

[jarcher]

[quote author=Rclark link=topic=118167.msg1241837#msg1241837 date=1373755917

The Kinect 2.0 is a marketing bot, and a pretty gimmicky "controller", not many people want to wave their arms around for hours to play a game.

it's basically designed to read your expressions and listen to your responses to advertising, cloaked as a "gaming device".[/quote]

Pretty sure I'd have a stroke within minutes not hours of flapping my arms around.  I'm too lazy to even use my steering wheel / pedal controller with Forza.

I think everyone was suckered by the Nintendo Wii that gamers - particularly the "non-traditional gamer - want more physical involvement. But all those folks once they bought it and played bowling ad nauseum on "sports" put the Wii on the shelf as the novelty item it was, while the core market was busy buying button mashing games where you shoot and blow things up. Now look at Nintendo. Stony and Microsoft had the last laugh. So yeah - I just want to shoot / blow up things and occasionally drive fake cars from the comfort of my couch - and the better it looks and sounds, the better.

The part about emotion surveillance to advertising is just down right creepy. Duct tape anyone?

[Bob in St. Louis]

The part about emotion surveillance to advertising is just down right creepy. Duct tape anyone?

If it ever come to the point where there's no choice......
I was thinking about propping up the cliche postcard from Hawaii and letting them stare at that instead of my living room. 

"Wish you were here".